Battle Brothers & Enemies
by mordecaiquintelmegafan
Summary: When the Tau attack Thraxos with a new kind of battle suit that enhances their close combat abilities and speed, how will the men and women of the Imperial Guard deal with them? Can the Space Marines arrive in time and will they be enough. There is something lurking in the shadows, watching as this game of chance plays out before them. Contains brutal violence.
1. Introduction

**It is the 41****st**** millennium. For more the ten**

**Millennia the immortal Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of**

**Earth. He is the master of human kind by the will of the gods of old, and the master of over a million worlds by the indisputable might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting corpse glowing invisibly with the lost power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the immortal lord of the Imperium of man, for whom over a million men and women are sacrificed every hour, so that he can never truly die.**

**Even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal**

**Vigilance. Mighty fleets of starships cross the daemon-infested miasma of**

**The Warp, the only means of travel between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's unyielding will. Vast armies march to war in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest**

**Amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines,**

**Bio-engineered super-warriors. They are his Angels of Death. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defense forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the **

**Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes of numbers, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants – and worse yet.**

**To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions of men. It is**

**To live in the cruelest of and bloodiest of times imaginable. These are**

**The tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and the knowledge of science, for so much has been forgotten, never again to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim darkness future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of bloody carnage and slaughter, and the laughter**

**Of thirsting gods of the Warp.**

**It is a galaxy you can live in today, but remember this: the galaxy is a big place, whatever happens, you will not be missed…**


	2. Prologue

It could have been like any other winter night in the Hive City of Thraxos Prime, some of the billions of people turning on and off the lecterns in there homes and workplaces. It was at night the Adeptus Abrites where busiest, the lower levels of the oversized behemoth that was the city crawling with crime lords and gangs. However this one night was different. To all but the most experienced of star gazers in the upper levels of the city, a new star had came into existence in the night sky. But what they could not notice until it was to late, be that the star was growing. As it grew, two more stars came into existence in the night sky. As the three stars kept on growing, smaller stars had come into eyesight. Soon the stars had started streaking down the midnight sky with fiery entrails trailing behind them. It was only until when the air raid sirens went off all over the city when everyone knew what they meant. Doom had come to the planet of Thraxos V.


	3. Chapter 3: Invasion

It was only until the distant booms of explosions through the hull of the Manta did Shas'vre Vior'la Kais that had told him the Gue'la are aware of the coming invasion. It matters not, for at this altitude and the speed they were going at means they will reach the surface of the planet in less then half a human hour with minimal casualties. Just enough time for pre battle diagnostics check. He was part of a Tau Vanguard attack force, a Battlesuit pilot. But his battlesuit was different. He wore the experimental XV64 panther Battlesuit. It was based upon the designs of the same stealthsuit O'Shaserra wears, but had enhanced cyber-muscle fibers inbuilt into the "legs" of it and featured inbuilt Pulse Blades, experimental Plasma based melee weapons. His team has been assigned to field test them because of their special training in the arts of the Mont'ka and melee combat. The lights went out, and his Blacksun Filter turned on, then the lights went red. Kais knew the time to begin the assault was near, and that always makes him nervous, even afraid. Whenever those emotions surface he always combats them with inspirational quote of Tau war heroes, particularly those of Commander Puretide. With that done he was ready to brave the storm of battle and potential death. To wage battle with his fellow Tau Fire Caste is to fill him with such great pride. He knows that he is not only born into tau militia, for he fights for not himself, but his friends and family. It is way of the Tau. Tau'va.

It may not have been the safest position in the defence perimeter of the hive city, but it did feel safe to Lt. Jonathan Rhodes. He was part of the Thraxos' PDF, he and his squad had been assigned to Macro Cannon XIV on patrol duties before the alarms were raised. Officer Riles was the current officer on duty. He was a strong looking man, with a stern face featuring a goatee and a deep, three-stroke scar that ran across his face. His right eye was replaced with a bionic implant; a Tyranid Genestealer had torn the original one from his eye socket twenty years ago. Rhode had only been sixteen then, when the Tyranids attacked his world of origin, Thraxos Secundus. The world was deemed lost and the population was evacuated, those that weren't were ever devoured by the Xenos monsters or died in the Virus-bombing that came afterwards. He had only escaped by the efforts of an Adeptus Astartes of the Ultramarines. After the threat was eliminated Rhodes had decided to join the PDF forces on Thraxos V. a lot of his friends and family had died during the invasion. Rhodes shuddered, shaking off the nearly overwhelming grief that had taken over his thoughts. That was then, this is now. "Lieutenant, hand me those magnoculars," said Riles. Knowing to trust the honed instincts of such a grizzled veteran, Rhodes did so without hesitation. "What is it," said Rhodes "Tyranids, Orks"? "Tau" replied Riles. "Tau"? Rhodes was confused. "Humph, few people living so close to the Eastern Fringe don't know of them, bloody grey-skins campaigning across imperial space, word of advice: keep your head down and try to get into melee with them" said Riles. "Get into close combat, I don't understand sir"? Already Riles was getting board of explaining all this to Rhodes. "Just do as I say and say your prayers to the Emperor". As Rhodes looked down the sights of his Lasgun, he only just realised the chaos about to unfold.

Shas'Vre Kais took a deep breath in, and as he exhaled he leapt from the back of the Manta. As he landed he rolled to minimize the impacts force. Soon enough he broke into a sprint, going at sixty-seven human kilometers an hour. Up ahead he could see gue'la warriors occupying a line of trenches and bunkers. It was his teams' assignment to open a breach in those lines of defense. He slid to a stop, letting forward momentum carry him into the trenches. Left leg extended in a breaking motion, as he slid into the trench his armored hove had planted itself into a gue'la warriors' sternum. The impact force had collapsed his ribs on itself, shards of bones puncturing and piercing vital organs. Before Kais had landed he activated his duel Pulse Blades and made way east towards one of the first artillery bunkers. He slid under a trio of men, cutting their legs from beneath them, before pounding into another pair, leaving their bodies bloody heaps of flesh, bone and armor. It was messy work, but the Greater Good demanded the sacrifice of their own and their enemies. Kais leapt over a quartet of men, angling his blades between their heads and their shoulders, decapitating all four of them. He slid to a halt before a pair of warriors, smashing them in their faces with the "hilts" of the Pulse Blades, caving in both of their skulls. Kais walked up to the bunker door and carved a cross into it, before ramming his hove into it, caving it in on itself. This is where the real slaughter was to begin.

Rhodes could not believe his eyes. Six Xenos figures had leapt from one of their super heavy transport craft; one of them had brutally slaughtered twelve men in the space of less then a minute. It was that which had caught Riles of guard. Rhodes knew why, he had consulted the Imperial Infantryman's Handbook. It had said that no other species in the galaxy could match their firepower and ranged weapons; their way of war was to take out their opposition from a distance. This had made them exceedingly poor at close combat. The fact that one Tau had killed twelve men in close combat should be theoretically impossible. The enemy standard foot infantry had just started disembarking their transport. Emerging from lower loading bays were hammer headed anti-gravic tanks, their main artillery cannons launching blinding beams of energy or super sonic rounds into the Hive Cities' walls. A volley of plasma rounds had struck the defense Rhodes was in. One of the Heavy Bolter gunners slumped at his weapon; half his face had been atomized. Damn, thought Rhodes. That was a headshot from about two-to-three kilometers away. These Xenos had good tech, it was almost heretical. "Rhodes, get on the Heavy Bolter, now!" said Riles. He followed his orders, moving the former gunners' corpse. What Rhodes saw next was terrifying. It was a swarm of flat disc-like drones, firing round after round of plasma energies. Using what basic knowledge of the weapon he has, Rhodes fired a constant stream of explosive bolts at them, trailing left to right. Within fifteen minutes the swarm will be at half its' strength and upon them at this rate. By then they may as well sign their own death warrants.


End file.
